


A Heartbeat for a Tin Man

by LittleMissWolfie



Series: Individuation [1]
Category: Persona 2, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Demon Painter accidentally adopts a child, Gen, Intergenerational friendship, Referenced/Implied Mental Illness, The Velvet Room (Persona Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 14:32:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16088042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleMissWolfie/pseuds/LittleMissWolfie
Summary: Ren dreams about the Velvet Room.





	A Heartbeat for a Tin Man

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably a mistake tbfh.
> 
> Hello, everyone! This is my first time writing for the Persona fandom, and this is also the first in a series of Alternate Universe fics I'm planning for the games. A lot of this is just setting the scene for later entries, so if some elements of this one-shot feel off to you, there may very well be a reason for that.
> 
> Or I just messed up.
> 
> That's also a possibility.
> 
> Let me know what you all think! I'd love to hear from all of you. 
> 
> Title is from "Rivers in the Desert" from the Persona 5 Soundtrack.

After the events in Sumaru City, the Velvet Room residents have ten years until their next official guest arrives.

However, that doesn’t stop an unofficial guest from dreaming their way into their home.

* * *

 

The boy is young. Very young, the Demon Painter notes. He can barely stand on his own. He has a mop of unruly black hair and the most electric blue eyes the Demon Painter has ever seen in a human. He feels compelled to capture this face on his canvas.

His colleagues, knowing the boy is simply dreaming, pay him no mind. Igor is teaching Elizabeth and Theodore about their duties, Nameless is tuning his piano, and Lady Belladonna is giving Margaret singing lessors. The demon Painter decides to follow their lead. The boy will stop dreaming of them soon enough.

* * *

 

A year passes before the boy speaks. He turns those bright blue eyes on the Demon Painter and says, “I’m Ren. What’s your name?”

“I don’t have a name,” the Demon Painter replies.

“But everyone has a name! With his tiny hand, Ren points at everyone else in the room. “Igor-jisan, Belladonna-neechan, Nameless-niichan, Elizabeth-neechan, Margaret-neechan, Theo-niichan.” The Demon Painter wonders when Ren learned everyone’s names. “So what’s yours?”

The Demon Painter takes a minute to decide how to phrase it. “I used to have a name,” he settles on, “but it doesn’t belong to me anymore.”

“What do your friends call you, then?”

“People call me the Demon Painter.”

Ren makes a face like he swallowed a lemon. “That doesn’t sound very nice! Kids at school call me a demon sometimes and the teachers get mad when they do.”

“Why do they call you a demon? You seem very well behaved to me.”

“They think my eyes are weird, and I get angry easy.”

“Well, I think your eyes are very pretty.”

Ren’s face screws up again. “Boys aren’t supposed to be pretty! Pretty is a girl thing!”

“Says who?”

“People at school.”

“I think we’ve already established their opinions aren’t exactly the best. I’m an artist, so I get to say if something is pretty or not.”

Ren goes quiet. Then, he says, “Can I come up with a name for you? So I don’t have to call you the Demon Painter?”

“I think I would like that, Ren.”

* * *

 

It takes a while for Ren to dream of the Velvet Room again. No one comments on his absence, to the point that the Demon Painter wonders if anyone else cares.

He does eventually reappear, though. He blinks into existence near the easel, where the Demon Painter is putting the finishing touches on his portrait of Amano Maya. “She’s pretty,” says Ren. “Who is she?”

“Her name is Maya. She used to visit us very often a few years ago. Whenever we have a guest like Maya, I paint a picture of them.”

“Will you paint a picture of me?”

“I only paint people who don’t visit us anymore.”

Ren pouts. “Well, you’ll never paint me, then, because I’ll always visit you!”

A lot of guests say that. They all leave eventually.

* * *

 

The Demon Painter starts teaching Ren how to paint. He’s always loved watching him paint, and art has never hurt anyone. The boy takes to the brush like nothing the Demon Painter has ever seen. He thinks about asking Igor if he can have an apprentice.

* * *

 

One day, after a week-long absence, Ren returns, more upset than the Demon Painter knows how to handle. “What’s wrong, Ren?”

“My sister went away,” Ren says. The words are barely comprehensible around the tears in his voice.

“I didn’t know you had a sister.”

“And a brother. We’re triplets.”

Somehow, the Demon Painter knows this information is important. He files it away for later. For now, he says, “Why did she go away?”

“She got adopted. Her new mom and dad didn’t want boys, so they only took her.”

“What does your brother think of this?”

Ren’s arms cross. “He’s quiet. He’s always quiet. I always have to talk for him.”

“Do you think he’s sad, too?”

“I don’t know. He doesn’t act like it. He never acts like he’s sad or mad.”

“Ah.” He’s not really sure what to do with this information. So, he turns to what he does know. “Do you want to paint?”

Ren nods.

* * *

 

Four years after Ren’s first dream, he says, “I’m going away soon.”

“You don’t sound very excited,” the Demon Painter says.

“I’m not,” Ren says. “The doctors say I’m sick in my head, and that’s why I have to go away. I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back here again.”

The Demon Painter shouldn’t be surprised. Ren’s stayed longer than most official guests already, and no one stays forever. “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” he says, hoping his voice is steady.

Tears well up in Ren’s eyes. “Won’t you miss me?”

“Of course I will!” The Demon Painter kneels so he’s down on Ren’s level. “I’ve had a lot of fun teaching you how to paint. More fun than I’ve had in years. I’ll miss you terribly when you’re gone.”

Ren throws himself into the Demon Painter’s arms. He hasn’t been hugged this way in a very long time. They’re quiet for a few long minutes before Ren says, “Henry.”

“What?” The Demon Painter tries to pull back so he can look at Ren, but the child has a death grip on his neck so he can’t move.

“Your name,” Ren says. “I told you I’d find a name for you. Your name’s Henry.”

“Henry,” he repeats, testing out the sound of the name in his mouth. “Why Henry?”

Ren shrugs, his tiny shoulders moving against his body. “I don’t know. It sounds good. Do you like it?”

“I love it,” Henry says. “Thank you very much, Ren.”

Ren finally moves away and fixes his eyes on Henry. “Will you start painting me when I leave?”

“Only if you don’t come back.”

“I’ll come back!” Ren promises. “Even if it takes a thousand years, I’ll come back!”

* * *

 

It doesn’t take a thousand years.

It takes five.

**Author's Note:**

> Individuation on [tumblr.](https://individuationfic.tumblr.com/)


End file.
